Prof. Dr. Bettina Schöne-Seifert
Prof. Dr. Bettina Schöne-Seifert
About the speaker
Professor Bettina Schöne-Seifert has been Director of the Institute for Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Münster in Westphalia, since 2003. As a philosopher and medical doctor, she has published numerous research findings on fundamental issues in philosophy and medical ethics, including free will, enhancement (including neuro-enhancement) and the foundations of medical ethics. She was a member of the National Ethics Council and subsequently the German Ethics Council in Berlin for nine years. She is a member of numerous commissions, including one on demographic change. She is a co-founder of the Academy for Ethics in Medicine.
Genetic Engineering and the unborn life. How far should we go in shaping life?
Lecture of 13 March 2020
The issue is as new as the biotechnology that gave rise to it. With the newly developed high-precision biological tools (CRISPR-Cas), it is expected that genetic structures can be modified in humans in a targeted and safe manner. In theory, these interventions can be applied not only to malfunctioning somatic cells in people who have already been born, but also, in a heritable manner, to unborn life. The objectives here could be therapeutic, preventive or enhancement-oriented. The big and important question is: how should and can we assess the latter option in particular – not least against the historical backdrop of eugenically motivated crimes?